Proof Press Release Final

For Immediate Release: December 28, 2017 Contact: Nicholas Peterson (617) 576-9278 x205 [email protected]

The Nora Theatre Company presents David Auburn’s Proof January 18 - February 18, 2018 Winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Drama

CAMBRIDGE, MA – The Nora Theatre Company is proud to present David Auburn’s Proof from January 18 – February 18, 2018 and is directed by Michelle M. Aguillon. The press performance is Tuesday, January 23 at 7:30PM. Proof is a Catalyst Collaborative@MIT Production.

An enigmatic woman, her brilliant father, and an unanticipated suitor. After the discovery of a groundbreaking proof, Catherine is confronted with the question of how much of her mathematician father’s brilliance did she inherit – and is that the only thing he passed on to her? Winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, David Auburn’s Proof is a moving exploration of the nature of genius, women in mathematics, and father-daughter relationships.

Proof plays at Central Square Theater, 450 Massachusetts Avenue in Cambridge from January 18 to February 18, 2018. Tickets may be purchased by calling 617.576.9278 x1, at the Central Square Theater box office, or online at CentralSquareTheater.org

About David Auburn David Auburn (Playwright) is a Tony Award– and Pulitzer Prize–winning American playwright, screenwriter, and director best known for his 2000 play Proof, which he also adapted for the screen, and for the screenplay for the film The Lake House. His play The Columnist opened on Broadway in 2012. David Auburn was born on November 30, 1969, in Chicago, Illinois, to Mark Auburn and Sandy K. Auburn. He grew up in Ohio and moved with his family to Arkansas in 1982, where his mother worked first for the East Arkansas Area Agency on Aging in Jonesboro (Craighead County) and then as the assistant deputy director of the Division of Aging and Adult Services for the Arkansas Department of Human Services in Little Rock (Pulaski County). His father was the dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at Arkansas State University (ASU) in Jonesboro and then Vice President for Planning and Management Support of the University of Arkansas System. In high school in Arkansas, he worked for local professional companies in such jobs as stage hand or assistant to the lighting designer. Auburn graduated in 1987 and attended the University of Chicago, where he wrote scripts for the performance group Off-Off Campus and began reviewing theater performances for the Maroon. Auburn received a BA in English literature in 1991. After graduation, Auburn won a fellowship with Amblin Entertainment for one year. He then moved to New York City and spent two years in Juilliard’s playwriting program, beginning in 1992, studying under the noted dramatists Marsha Norman and Christopher Durang. His first full-length

play, Skyscraper, ran off-Broadway in 1997. His short play “What Do You Believe about the Future?” appeared in Harper’s magazine and has since been adapted for the screen. In 2000, Auburn’s best-known play, Proof, was produced. It ran from October 24, 2000, to January 5, 2003. It won the 2001 Tony Award for Best Play, as well as the 2001 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. Auburn has adapted it into a film, which was released in 2005. Following Proof, he wrote the screenplay for the movie The Lake House, released by Warner Bros. in 2006. In 2007, he made his directorial debut with The Girl in the Park, for which he also wrote the screenplay. He returned to Broadway in 2012 with The Columnist, starring John Lithgow and based on the life of Washington DC newspaper columnist Joseph Alsop. His play Lost Lake, starring John Hawkes and Tracie Thomas, opened at the Manhattan Theatre Club in New York City in 2014. Auburn’s work often revolves around death and tragedy but with warmth, humor, and strong characterization. Proof tells the story of a young woman haunted by the ghost of her father, a brilliant mathematician. Skyscraper, Auburn’s first play, focused on a suicide but maintained comic elements as well. In an interview with Zachary Werner for Otium, Auburn said that “in any human situation there is the potential for humor and pathos, both. I like stories that surprise you with sudden shifts of mood or tone, so that as an audience member you never quite settle into complacency.” Auburn has been awarded the Helen Merrill Playwriting Award and a Guggenheim Fellowship, as well as a New York Critic’s Circle Award. He married Francis Rosenfeld in 1999 and resides in Manhattan.

About Michelle M. Aguillon Michelle M. Aguillon (Director) has been a theater artist in the Boston area for 23 years. A first generation Filipino- American from Northern California, Michelle studied acting at San Francisco State University, California State University at Long Beach and the National Theater of London summer program for Americans. After moving to Boston in 1993, Michelle acted in various stage productions, industrial films, and commercial work, all the while holding down a 9-to-5 corporate job and raising a daughter alone. Directing credits include Disgraced and True West (Umbrella Community Arts Center), Pillowman, Rabbit Hole, Good People, Kimberly Akimbo, Sense and Sensibility, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Looking for Normal, and G.R. Point (Hovey Players), Return to Morality (Titanic Theater, Central Square Theater), Rapture, Blister, Burn (Vokes Theater), Of Mice and Men (Quannapowitt Players), God of Carnage, Anton in Show Business (Acme Theater), Miss Saigon, Secret Garden (Turtle Lane Playhouse), Godspell (Metro Stage Company), various short plays (Annual Boston Theater Marathon at the Calderwood, Boston). Michelle was awarded IRNEs for Best Director for G.R. Point and Best Actress for Communicating Doors. Michelle has served as a theater mentor for teens at the Boston Center for the Arts, and as a theater teacher for kindergarten through high school students at the Iskwelahang Pilipino (the Filipino Cultural School) in Bedford, MA. Michelle currently serves on the advisory board of Theater UnCorked, and also as secretary and board member for the Hovey Players and for the Eastern Massachusetts Association of Community Theaters (EMACT). Upcoming directing projects include Marjorie Prime (February, Hovey Players) and Communicating Doors (May, Vokes Theater).

About the Cast of Proof Avery Bargar (Hal) is thrilled to make his Nora debut! Credits include NY: Hubbard Hall: King Lear (Cornwall). Regional: Elm Shakespeare: Romeo & Juliet (Benvolio), Greater Boston Stage Company: Alligator Road (Scott), and Hampshire Shakespeare: Comedy of Errors (Aegeon/Luciana). Boston: Happy Medium Theatre: Brendan (Brendan), Theatre on Fire: Dog Act (Coke), Hibernian Hall: The Draft (Jay Holtzman). Avery has also worked with Commonwealth Shakespeare Company and Brown Box Theatre Project, and can often be seen improvising and music directing at ImprovBoston. Up Next: Don Pedro in Much Ado About Nothing with Actors Shakespeare Project. See AveryBargar.com for more!

Cheryl Daro (Claire) is a Filipino-American actor/producer and is proud to be the first-born American citizen in her family. She is currently in BAZ Star Crossed Love playing in Las Vegas, and was most recently seen as Gigi

Van Tran in Miss Saigon at the Tony Award winning Signature Theatre in DC. Ms. Daro cultivated her passion for storytelling at Atlantic Theater School in 2009. Last year, Ms. Daro and her husband opened The Space (TheSpaceLV.com), a multi-functional raw performance venue. She is the Co-Creator the charity event, Mondays Dark (MondaysDark.com), a 90 min show that raises 10k for a different local Vegas charity bi-weekly. Ms. Daro hopes to continue to create art and share her story because no matter what color our skin is, these are stories about all of us. She’s a proud member of Actor’s Equity. Follow her at Twitter: @cheryldaro Instagram: @seedaro. REGIONAL: BAZ: Star Crossed Love (Swing); NCL: Rock of Ages (Regina Koontz); Signature Theatre: Miss Saigon (Gigi); Greenway Court Theater: Jewtopia (Rachel Khan); Gateway Playhouse: Miss Saigon (Gigi); STAGES Theatre: The Wild Party (Madelaine True); MTC Theater Company: 24 Hours: a Rock Musical (Ovation Nomination); CMTSJ: Peter Pan, Chess, Evita, Big: the Musical; CABARET/ BENEFIT: Mondays Dark, Hot Night in the City 2011, Session Series, Upright Cabaret; RECORDINGS: Greenwood the Musical, Officer and a Gentleman the Musical; WORKSHOP: The First Gentleman, Tears of Heaven (Frank Wildhorn), Ed Wood the Monster Musical, Lovelace the Rock Musical; FILM: Jewtopia; EDUCATION: Atlantic Theater School, 2009

Lisa Nguyen (Catherine) is excited to return to CST where she was last seen in Journey to the West. After graduating from Fitchburg State University with a B.S. in Communications Media, she went on and studied at William Esper Studio for the summer intensive. Recent credits include: Julius Caesar (Praxis Stage), Bold Moves (Hibernian Hall), Journey to the West (Central Square Theater), FAUSTED (Edinburgh Theater Festival Premiere), Arcadia, The Crucible (Fitchburg State). Readings and Workshops:The Token Fallopians of Middleton Heights (Fresh Ink Theatre), Stir Frying Mahjong (Company One), Christine de Pizan's City of Ladies (Central Square Theater), Memorial (Boston Playwrights' Theater), and FAULT (KCACTF). Instagram: @nguwin

Michael Tow (Robert) is a Professional TV, Film,Theater actor, filmmaker and producer. He has appeared in Hollywood Films/TV shows like Unfinished Business, RIPD, Daredevil, Royal Pains, Master of None and MacGyver. Some of his theatre credits include Chinglish, Warrior Class (Lyric Stage Company of Boston), Wild Swans (ART), After the Quake, You for Me For You (Company One), Where The Mountain Meets The Moon (Wheelock Family Theatre). His production company, Tow Arboleda Films, produces popular social justice films & videos that help bring a new lens and attention to the under-represented in media. His films/videos have had millions of views worldwide.

The artistic and design team includes Janie E. Howland (Scenic Design), Leslie Held (Costume), Allison Schneider (Lighting Design), Grant Furgiuele (Sound Design & Original Composition), with Lisa Berg and Annabeth Kelly (Properties Coordinators). Sam Layco is the Production Stage Manager. Michaila Cowie is the Assistant Stage Manager.

Central Square Theater (CST) opened in 2008 through a groundbreaking partnership between The Nora Theatre Company (The Nora) and Underground Railway Theater (URT). This collaboration has been called a model for the arts community (The Boston Foundation, Culture is our Commonwealth, and The National Collaboration Prize), as it has paired two like-minded performing arts organizations in a strategic alliance with the City of Cambridge and MIT, resulting in the development of a state-of-the-art performing arts center in the heart of Central Square. CST has a mission to support its two theaters-in-residence while maintaining a shared vision of artists and audiences creating theater vital to their communities. The Nora and URT have a combined track record of over 50 years producing award-winning theater. Located in Central Square, Cambridge, Massachusetts, and steeped in its multiracial, intergenerational, ethnically and economically diverse neighborhoods, the CST theater experience exudes a democratic energy where classes, races and age groups come together to be inspired, entertained and energized.

Press inquiries should be directed to Central Square Theater’s Director of Marketing, Nicholas Peterson, phone: 617.576.9278 x205 or via email [email protected].

Central Square Theater is accessible to persons with special needs and to those requiring wheelchair seating. For further information please call 617.576.9278 or visit CentralSquareTheater.org

CALENDAR AND RELATED FACTS AT A GLANCE

PROOF By David Auburn Directed by Michelle M. Aguillon January 18 – February 18, 2018

Produced by: The Nora Theatre Company

Cast: Avery Bargar (Hal), Cheryl Daro (Claire), Lisa Nguyen (Catherine), Michael Tow (Robert)

Director: Michelle M. Aguillon

Stage Manager: Sam Layco

Design Team: Janie E. Howland (Scenic Design), Leslie Held (Costume), Allison Schneider (Lighting Design), Grant Furgiuele (Sound Design & Original Composition), Lisa Berg and Annabeth Kelly (Properties Coordinators).

Performing at: Central Square Theater, 450 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge 02139

Run Time: 2 hours with one intermission

Press Performance: Tuesday, January 23 2018 at 7:30PM

Ticket Prices: Tickets begin at $25. Seniors Save $5, Students (with Univ. ID): $20. Under 18: $15. Discounts for Groups.

Box Office: 617.576.9278 x1, CentralSquareTheater.org

Media Contact: Nicholas Peterson, 617.576.9278 x205, [email protected]

END